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Nato chief says facts to prevail over fake news

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said a free and independent press is important to help weed out fake news. "We will never counter propaganda with propaganda, we will counter propaganda with facts," he said in Brussels Thursday, after a fake story which claimed German soldiers in Nato's Russia-deterrent force in Lithuania had raped a local woman.

Central European countries say they have "nothing to hide" on rule of law issues - while justice commissioner Vera Jourova said they should agree to the Commission's controversial budget plans on rule of law conditionality.

Giovanni Buttarelli, the European data protection supervisor, says the EU-US data sharing pact known as Privacy Shield will play an increasingly minor role given the general data protection regulation.